Bloody Sympathy
by Yuderu Takanoburu
Summary: Perspective can be a fickle thing. In the perspective of Gensokyans in general, youkai are usually the ones who cause the biggest incidents. But when an enigmatic character begins to rock Gensokyo's very foundation, will their perspective hold steadfastly, or will they realize the worst incident creators may very well be humanity itself.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

**The Touhou franchise is owned by ZUN, and as such I own nothing in this story other than my own original creations****.**

* * *

The Hakurei Shrine. A seemingly ordinary place of worship. However, to the truly astute observers, it is a gateway. A gateway between worlds. On one end we have the Outside World, a world of the ordinary. A place dominated by scientific explanations and modern technology, yet riddled with the discreet danger of pollution. On the other end we have Gensokyo, a world of the extraordinary. A much more ancient land with fantastical wonders, yet the obvious dangers that are the youkai are abundant. In both cases, we have places that are paradises for their inhabitants, yet for the uninitiated, seem like horrid places to live. It's all a matter of perspective.

This story will take place in Gensokyo, the extraordinary side. For something is happening that will soon shake this land to it's very core.

* * *

The autumn leaves fell from the trees onto a nearby building, which looked run-down and didn't seem to offer much protection from the cold.

This was the Hakurei Shrine. And it's sole occupant at the moment. A very grumpy maiden.

The maiden in question was around 5'2" with brown eyes and black hair that went down to her shoulders, with the exception of her twin tails, which went down to her waist. She wore a red blouse with detached sleeves, as well as a red skirt with a white trim. On top of that, she wore a bow of similar color on top of her head. She was also carrying a black stick with paper strips on it, which were cut in such a way that made them seem like attached diamonds.

This was Reimu Hakurei, the current Hakurei shrine maiden, who was in the process of cleaning up her shrine after she checked her donation box to find nothing in it(as usual), when she suddenly heard a knock on the door. At first, she thought it was just a random freeloader looking to crash at her shrine, but she soon realized that wasn't the case. The knocking was too... frantic. Almost as if someone was panicking on the other side.

Out of curiosity, she decided to open it, only to be greeted by quite the surprise.

It was a girl who was 5'3" with light purple hair that went slightly below her kneecaps and eerie red eyes. She wore a white shirt with short puffy sleeves, complete with a red necktie. She also wore a violet belt and a light red skirt. However, perhaps the most striking feature about her were the rabbit ears that she had on the top of her head.

However, her appearance wasn't what surprised Reimu. What surprised her was that this was not only someone she knew, but someone she didn't expect to look the way she did. This was Reisen Udongein Inaba. And she looked terrified.

"May I come in?" She asked, unsuprisingly, pretty meekly, yet with a hint of fear in her voice, which did not go unnoticed by Reimu. "Sure, why not." Reisen looked visibly relieved by what she said, however she still looked somewhat scared.

They soon went into the main room, which looked more like a dining room than anything else. After they sat at the table, Reimu asked the inevitable question. "So, what exactly has got you so scared?" Even though she didn't want to admit it, she was curious as to what could have someone like Reisen so terrified.

"Sorry I didn't talk about it earlier, it just went by so quickly I had trouble processing it all." Reisen cleared her throat. She was clearly hesitant to talk about this. "But even after thinking about it for a bit, I still have no idea on how it happened. One moment I was preparing to sell medicine at the Human Village like usual, and the next the inhabitants of Eientei started to attack me. And it wasn't with danmaku either, it looked like they were about to kill me. As soon as I fled the area I decided to head straight here to see if you could help."

"My that's quite the conundrum isn't it." That voice came from behind them.

Both of them immediately fell out of their chairs, with Reimu in particular screaming, "Seriously, Yukari!"

The Yukari she was referring to was a much more mature woman at 5'7" with golden eyes and blond hair that went below her waist. She wore a pink frilly dress that looked like it was designed in England with black bands with a gray design on it's sleeves, complete with a purple chinese tabard she wears over it, as well as a mob cap of similar color to the dress adorned on her head. She also wore 5 ribbons on her person, one on her mob cap, two in her hair, and two on her sleeves. Finally, she was sitting on one of her signature gaps, tears in reality that could act like portals to transport her wherever she wants, which also have ribbons on each end.

"Sorry for the scare, this was just a conversation I had to share some insight on." Yukari's tone was dead serious, a far cry from her usual playful attitude. At least she's not behind this.

On that note, Reimu had to ask something. "Do you have any idea who did this?" She can practically see across the entirety of Gensokyo, and besides she's the kind of person who would know something about this.

"A reasonable assumption to make, but surprisingly, I do not. However, I do know that this isn't exclusive to Eientei. In fact, it seems to be happening across the entirety of Gensokyo." Reisen blanched at that proclamation. "Please tell me you're making one of your cruel jokes." Reisen faintly cried, both figuratively and literally, as Reimu could see tears coming out of her eyes.

"Unfortunately, I am not, in fact you were wise to come here immediately." Reimu began to have a growing sense of worry. A mysterious "killer instinct" has spread all across Gensokyo, and Yukari has no idea who's behind it. Not only was an incident happening so soon after the one on the moon, but it was already shaping up to be the biggest incident Reimu has ever taken part in.

* * *

The plan was going smoothly thus far. Her "trend" had spread quickly, however someone was already on their way to stop her. She wasn't scared. She knew they couldn't stop her. At this point, no one could. As her shadowy figure slinks into the darkness, the only thing that was ever visible were her brilliant emerald green eyes.

* * *

**Just an idea in my head I wanted to write down for once. Believe me, I have many. Fair warning to Reisen fans however, I am a massive jerk to her in this story and I fully acknowledge this. And with that I think this is as good a place as any to sign off... for now.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**The Touhou franchise is owned by ZUN, and as such I own nothing in this story other than my own original creations.**

* * *

When people think of forests in the Outside World, they generally think of peaceful areas to camp in or try to escape from scociety's sometimes constricting grip, usually with a rather diverse amount of wildlife. However, when Gensokyans think of forests, they usually think of very dangerous terrain and, of course, wildlife with the added danger of noxious fumes.

Why? Well, Gensokyo is a rather small place, so when you say the word "forest", it usually refers to one forest in particular. The Forest of Magic. However, while the place is as predictably dangerous as it sounds, it can be very rewarding for those who want to live in solitude.

In a built-in clearing in the forest, however, there is a rather out of place house. It's a small, white European-style house with a blue roof, two floors, and a small, octagonal tower built into the side of it. It also appeared to be rather polished and well-kept compared to the rest of the forest. But living inside this out of place house, was a rather in-place character.

* * *

"I might as well take a walk. I do need fresh air every once and awhile." That was said by a girl who was about 5'1" with blond hair that went down to her shoulders and mysterious golden eyes with flecks of blue sprinkled throughout. She wore a blue dress with white short sleeves they looked like very thin shoulder pads, along with two pink ribbons, each around her neck and waist. She also had faint, seemingly transparent strings around her fingers, which were almost instinctivey controlling a doll which had a black dress with a white apron on, and was also carrying what appeared to be a cross between a cleaver and a polearm as a weapon. Lastly, this girl's skin seemed to have a sort of plastic sheen.

This was Alice Margatroid. The doll she was controlling was a doll named Shanghai, one of her most trusted dolls. After having just eaten a non-mandatory breakfast(she does it for the luxury), she had decided to see what was going on outside. However, upon opening the front door, something caught her attention.

There were similarly faint strings to her own littered throughout the forest, however there were a few notable differences. Firstly, while her strings were relatively clear from her perspective, these strings were of the faintness most people described for her strings, even to her. To other people, these would be practically invisible. Secondly, they were red, not white, which luckily made them easier to see. Third, based on the fact they seemed scattered not just near her house, but throughout the forest and likely the entirety of Gensokyo from what she could sense, these strings were likely meant to influence people to do certain behaviors, rather than directly control them.

"If this isn't the beginning of an incident, I don't know what is." After some deliberation, Alice decided to follow the strings to hopefully find the source, after all these strings had to come from somewhere right?

* * *

Alice wasn't expecting what she got. Following the overall tragectory of the strings had led her to a small shack in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. What surprised her about this was that the shack was so deep in the forest she doubted that even the people who could navigate the place knew about this.

The shack was of a similar style to her own house, though it was a lot smaller and oddly enough, had no windows. The house also didn't have any paint on it, or if it did, the inhabitants picked a very accurate wood color. The yard also seemed extremely well kept, and also had a lot of tea leaves growing in it.

As soon as she landed, someone opened the door, almost as if they were expecting her. Did the culprit see something like this happening?

Speaking of the supposed culprit, she stood at around 5'10" with black hair that went down to her ankles, and brilliant emerald green eyes. She wore a scarlet red tuxedo with a matching tie and white undershirt, as well as black pants clearly meant for formal wear. She also had a sword made of a dark red material all throughout. Ruby, perhaps? And where had she seen that facial structure before? Another curious feature about this person was her aura. Despite the odds going entirely against the idea, it was unmistakably human. To even think a simple human could cause an incident on this scale seemed impossible, yet here it was staring her in the face.

"Ah, a guest." She closed the door behind her. "Alice Margatroid, am I wrong?" she suddenly uttered. '_Ok this is creepy, this seemingly random person knows my name._' Alice thought, but nevertheless, she kept a cool head. "Yes, that would be me, and I must ask, why put your house all the way out here? Are you trying to be lonely?" Alice snarked, hoping to throw her off her game, get her to talk.

The woman stuck her lips in a pouty face. "How rude, have you not ever heard of privacy. And besides, you're rather hypocritical saying that. After all, you live in the Forest of Magic, a place practically designed for seclusion." Alice visibly winced at what she said, fully admiting she had her with that one. '_How the hell does she know that?_' One thing she knew for sure was that something was seriously wrong with this woman. She'd clearly found her culprit.

"Alright, who are you instigator, I've had enough!" The woman had a sudden look of realization on her face. "I don't know what you mean by instigator, but apparently I've forgotten my manners. You may call me Xhi." Alice had gotten a name, but she seemed to be dodging the question. Despite Xhi clearly being human, she was acting just Yukari would in this situation, and it was driving her nuts.

"Isn't it obvious, your little strings are no doubt a menace to Gensokyo." She proceeds to summon 4 dolls signifying she was ready for a fight. "Now, I suggest you..." Before she could finish her sentence, she felt a sudden cut in her mind, and sees Xhi in the same position, only now holding her sword by her side. In preemptive horror, Alice slowly looks behind herself, only to find every single doll she summoned cut into pieces.

'_How did she..._' She didn't get to finish that thought as she noticed her sudden opponent had just rushed her location, giving her barely enough time to dodge an uppercut from Xhi's right hand. '_She just exploited my hesitation. I've gotta be careful in this fight._' All the while Xhi had a slight smirk on her face, almost as if she was intending to be as condescending as possible towards Alice.

Alice knew she couldn't summon any dolls this fight, Xhi would cut them up too fast for her to make use of them. This immediately forces her into an unfavorable situation, as without her dolls she couldn't really fight much. Luckily, she usually brings a revolver just in case something like this would happen, and now seemed like the perfect time to pull it out. She grabs it and shoots a round into Xhi's left arm, which she dodges by twisting her body counterclockwise, then proceeds to redirect the momentum generated from that twist into a downward slash. Alice dodges this by jumping to the right, however the sword manages to crack the ground. She didn't have time to think of the ramifications however, as Xhi then swept her balled up fist across the air, which somehow hit her hard across the ribs and threw her into the treeline.

Alice was breathing heavily, coughing up blood, struggling to even stand, all from a blow that, by all accounts, shouldn't have hit her, yet did. '_What kind of magic was that, and why do I feel like I just got punched by an oni?_' She didn't have time to think though, as she started to her footsteps heading to her location. Looking in the direction they were coming from, she finds the shadowy figure of Xhi walking towards her, most likely to finish the job. On instinct, she pulled out her revolver and fired a second round. Big mistake. After the shot, she felt like her lungs had just gotten blown apart, before finally passing out from the blow, combined with exhaustion.

* * *

Xhi didn't expect the second gunshot, and the lung area of her chest had gotten blown to bits. Not like it mattered, no simple revolver was going to kill her, nothing short of something that could destroy every last drop of her blood would. Alice seemed to have overexerted herself from the fight prior, but she had to respect the girls tenacity. She likely thought Xhi was going to kill her then and there, and was doing everything she could to survive, even if it meant hurting herself in the process.

But Xhi wasn't going to kill her. Contrary to what her attitude and actions made it seem, she wasn't just a wanton murderer, and Alice wasn't on her menu. Still, she couldn't have this woman so close to her house at the moment. However, she did memorize the trajectory she flew to get here, and could safely assume she lived in that direction. So, she picked her up, and threw her so hard she flew in a straight line. Xhi was surprised Alice wasn't straight up ripped apart from that throw, but she wasn't her concern at the moment. Now, it was once again a waiting game.

* * *

"Hello, anybody home." That voice came from a young girl who stood at 5' flat with yellow eyes and blond hair that went slightly below her shoulders. She wore a black dress and a white apron tied around her waist. The dress had 6 yellow buttons on her abdomen, as well as a pin on the neckline shaped like a cresent moon. On top of her head was what could only be described as a worn out witches hat with a white bow on the edge. In her hand was a wooden broom that was so curved it made it akin to an exaggerated katana.

This was Marisa Kirisame, who had on a whim, decided to head over to Alice's house to see what was going on, only to find no one there.

"Huh, guess she actually went outside for a change. Might as well make myself at home." Suddenly, she heard a crash, and before she could react, something that felt like one of Yukari's many trains fell on top of her, pummeling her to the ground. "Ow, what in the world was that, ze!" However, when she looked at what had hit her, she was shocked to find the sprawling figure of Alice herself, lying there on the floor.

* * *

**Guess how the situation at the end happened. Go on, guess. On another note, I don't know if any of you saw an OC villian coming, so if you did, good on you for figuring it out.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**The Touhou franchise is owned by ZUN, and as such I own nothing in this story other than my own original creations.**

* * *

After what felt like an eternity, Marisa finally saw the owner of the house wake. Good thing too, from what she could tell, Alice definitely had at the very least a cracked rib. That's not even mentioning the amount of bruises she could've gotten from... actually how did Alice get into the situation she did? She definitely isn't the type to let her opponent get this hard of a hit in too easily.

Not like that mattered, as soon as she got those answers, she was already planning to take Alice straight to Eientei for medical treatment. Little did she know the answers she would get would cause her to scrap those plans almost immediately.

* * *

Alice was somewhat surprised. Her recent memory was still a bit foggy at the moment, however, from looking at her surroundings, she could deduce two things. One, she was at her house, which is actually what surprised her, since she knew for a fact she was flying towards the direction of the culprit, which she knows was away from her house. Two, she was hurting. A lot.

"Ah, you're awake." Immediately she looked to her right, only to find a certain witch she suspected had said those words... and then felt a sharp pain in her neck immediately afterward. "Ow!" "Don't strain yourself too much, you look pretty beat up." Beat up? Ah, now she remembered. She actually had found and fought the culprit in the Bamboo Forest. It didn't end well for her. Though that still left two questions. Firstly, where was the extra pain coming from? She knew she only got a cracked rib and maybe a small rupture in her lung at most in that fight, so why was she hurting all over? Secondly, why was she back at her house? It was that question she had an idea on.

"Did you carry me back here?" As soon as she said that sentence, she started coughing up blood. But she had suspected the witch might have been responsible for getting back from her little fiasco.

"As convienient as that would be, I actually have no idea how you got back here. All I know is that it resulted in you having a new hole in your wall." So she didn't carry her back here. However, looking to her left(a lot slower this time), she could confirm Marisa's words. There was indeed a new hole in her wall. That combined with her newfound pain, suggested that Xhi threw her all the way back here, and she got majorly bruised from the impact. That only left more questions though. For one, just how strong was Xhi for her to be able to throw her all the way back to her house. And if she was that strong, why wasn't she outright killed right then and there. Those were questions she couldn't answer, however, not without more evidence.

"I guess you want to know how this happened." She spoke in a much softer voice out of fear of hurting herself again. "You bet I want answers, you're not the type to get hurt this badly, ze!" Alice sat up as slowly as possible. "I don't know if you will believe me, but I minus well tell you the situation. After all, based on how you're acting, I don't think you know what's going on."

* * *

Marisa furrowed her brows when Alice finished her story. She hit the nail on the head. She didn't have any idea an incident was going on. But if what Alice said was true, it also meant taking Alice to Eientei wasn't a valid option. Who knows what Xhi could have done to them.

"Alright change of plans. You head over to the Hakurei Shrine and recover as soon as possible. I don't know if Reimu knows what's going on, so it would be a good opportunity to tell her. I'll head over to the little shack you described and see if I can teach our culprit a lesson." Alice soon retorted, "That's a great idea, except there's one problem." Marisa tilted her head in confusion. "What are you talking about?" Alice then looked down at her body, slowly looked up at Marisa, and then said in the most forceful voice she could, "I'll give you one guess."

Marisa nearly facepalmed at what she said. For some reason, she never considered the idea that Alice couldn't walk at the moment. "Point taken. Fine I'll take you there myself." Marisa proceeded to do just that.

* * *

Reimu was not happy at the moment. She and the others she was housing at the moment had been trying to find any clues on this "killer instinct" for a couple of hours, but no matter where they looked, they always seemed to run into dead ends. They had made zero progress this entire investigation, which was not only frustrating to everyone involved, but also a testament to how sneaky the culprit was.

They're group was about to go check the Forest of Magic when they suddenly heard a knock on the door. At this point Reimu had finally given into her anger. "Arrgh! Who's at the stinking door!" As she got to said door, she slammed it open and prepared to yell at her visitors to leave, when she saw something that didn't just stop her, but made her catch her breath.

First off, Marisa was at her shrine, which at this point of the investigation was odd, and left four options given the current circumstances. One, she came here solely to crash, which would aggravate her to no end at this point. Two, she'd succumbed to the "killer instinct" and was looking for a preemptive strike, which would have been bad for not just herself, but also the extra occupants as well as the shrine, which probably would have made her angrier than the first option. Three, she didn't know about the incident until now and was coming to look for clues, which Reimu had none so it would be a waste of time.

As for option four however, that related to the other person at the door. It was the very bruised, but still very recognizable figure of Alice Margatroid, who had her arm on Marisa's shoulder, and she could've just been looking to drop her off to recover. In which case, considering she was housing Reisen and Yukari for the duration of this incident, it was good timing on her part. She decided to hopefully exploit that last option.

"Hey Yukari, can you fetch me a healing potion from Eientei real fast, we got a problem." Reimu shouted behind her, before turning towards Marisa and saying, "Was that what you wanted?"

Marisa made a cheshire grin before saying, "What are you, psychic?" Reimu smirked back before replying, "No just working towards the best outcome." "Wait, did you just say Yukari was here?" Marisa suddenly shouted with the appropriate expression on her face. Reimu rubbed her posterior lacrimal crest before replying, "Let's just say there is currently an incident that has gotten extremely out of hand."

Yukari soon arrived and handed Reimu the healing potion, who then started to hand it to Alice before promptly realizing she might not be able to hold it. Reimu the uncorks the bottle herself and puts it near her mouth before saying, "Here, drink up." Alice promptly does so, and soon takes her arm of Marisa before saying in a noticeably softer voice than usual, "Well I'm not completely healed, but I'm at least able to walk again."

Marisa had turned around at this point saying, "Well, I'm off to the Bamboo Forest, you guys can up with each other while I'm there" before flying off.

"I should probably tell you guys why she's heading there, shouldn't I?" Alice soon inquired. "Catching up indeed." Yukari retorted.

* * *

Marisa had soon found the shack Alice described, though it took quite a bit of scrounging. Alice wasn't kidding when she said it was hard to find, and she didn't even know the forest went this deep.

As soon as she landed, however, someone opened the door, just like what happened with Alice, and the exact person Alice described to boot. And that face did seem oddly familiar.

"Oh. Now what would an ordinary magician be doing at my house?" Xhi said with a confused expression on her face. "You must be this Xhi I've heard about." Xhi seemed somewhat surprised at that for a brief moment. Ah, so you've heard of me." She said with a sudden smile on her face. "I suppose that means introductions aren't going to be necessary." Marisa grinned. "I don't think I would have wanted introductions anyways."

As soon as that was stated, she sped forward on her broom, hoping to impale her opponet. Xhi immediately dodges the attempted strike, to which Marisa rounds and starts shooting a volley of magic missiles. Then Xhi does something Marisa didn't see coming. She makes a giant amount of blood suddenly appear from the ground on both sides of her, before having it converge and crystallizing it into a shield, blocking the entirety of Marisa's attack. '_So that's her ability. To manipulate blood. Rather creepy but I can work around that._' Marisa then flew above her opponent and threw down a couple of bottles, hoping to catch Xhi off guard with the magical energy contained inside. Xhi saw this coming however, and created three tiny balls of blood in response, then threw them up to the bottles. Marisa was confused by this course of action, that is until the balls hit the bottles, where they then exploded on contact, revealing them to be makeshift grenades. Unfortunately for Marisa, this combined with the magic in the bottles created a sizable smokescreen, which Xhi soon used as an oppurtunity. Within seconds, the woman was suddenly above Marisa and proceeded to execute a devastating butterfly kick on the back of her neck, spiking Marisa downwards at a diagonal angle, straight into the ground, cracking the earth with the force of her fall.

'_Owie, Alice was right, that smarts._' She soon manages to get off the ground. '_I can barely stand after that._' Xhi soon landed a distance away, and started walking towards her. _"_Not this time!" Marisa suddenly shouted, and soon flew straight to Xhi's side a couple yards away, charging up her signature attack. "Master Spark!" As soon as she said that she charged right next to Xhi, before unleashing a massive rainbow-colored laser straight into her face.

Marisa soon collapsed, beaten and battered from that fight, surprisingly heavily scarred from that last attack despite her knowing it had no recoil problems, yet smiling. '_There's no way she could've stayed conscious after that._' At least, that's what she thought. But as soon as she looked forward, her heart seemed to stop. Her eyes widened. She had seen something that could very well terrify her for years to come. Standing right in front of her was Xhi, her opponent, who despite taking a Master Spark point blank, had zero visible injuries. '_Is she even human?!_' Xhi soon looked down and said, "You lost this fight the moment you stepped to confront me. I suggest you leave while I'm giving you the chance." Marisa didn't need to hear anymore, she immediately got on her broom and flew away, fleeing the vicinity without another word.

* * *

Xhi looked up at the fleeing Marisa, who now had clear terror in her eyes, all her bravado burned away just like that. She smirked ominously before heading right back inside. She still had buisness to take care of, after all.

* * *

Reimu was pleasently surprised at Alice's side of the story. Not only had she managed to figure out how the "killer instinct" was spread, she also managed to figure out who did it. That was where her bruises came from, a confrontation with what was likely a very strong culprit, who's ability they couldn't quite pin at the moment. She was also surprised to hear that was where Marisa was going.

Though that still left many why's. Why was the culprit's house as deep in the Bamboo Forest as it was? Was it truly for privacy, or was there another factor they hadn't seen yet? Why was a human even causing an incident on this scale? It certainly couldn't have been on a whim like most youkai, so what was her reason. And why was Xhi even powerful enought to pull something like this off, anyways?

She couldn't ponder on that for long, however, as she soon heard a knock on the door. She went to go open it, and when she did, her breath caught again. This time, Marisa had come back with several burn marks and quite a bit of bruising, though unlike Alice, she was still able to walk. Still, the fact she had come back with injuries this bad and the incident hadn't been resolved yet could only add up to one thing. Marisa had lost. Badly.

Reimu could only say one thing in response to this. "I can already tell we are in for a much harder fight than we originally thought."

* * *

**Chapter 1 set the stakes, Chapter 2 introduced the character, and Chapter 3 made her terrifying. On the note of her ability being introduced here, I think you can figure out what her sword is made of now. I do think this chapter was a bit rushed despite ultimately being longer than the other two so far, so if you don't like the content here I can fully understand that.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**The Touhou franchise is owned by ZUN, and as such I own nothing in this story other than my own original creations.**

* * *

"What?!" That scream came from Reimu, who had just heard the whole of Marisa's story, and was utterly baffled at how someone could take a Master Spark point-blank and walk out completely unscathed. She wasn't the only one either, as Alice, Reisen and even Yukari were shocked to hear the extent of Xhi's durability.

That wasn't their only revelation however, as Marisa had also found out her ability, which, while it raised more questions at first about what she was doing with Alice, Yukari managed to give valid explanations as to why they worked that way, or at least, the whole punch that hit while not hitting thing. Apparently, Xhi can't just create blood, but also manipulate it from inside the bloodstream. Thus, by attacking that blood, she essentially has a ranged punch. That can't be blocked.

Reisen's reaction soon after Reimu's scream summed up the situation best. "So... does anyone have a plan to defeat this woman? Because we're going to need one." Yukari tried to keep a composed face, though it was clear even she was worried by the situation. "I'll try to think of whatever I can. I could manipulate a boundary, of course, but it's going to be difficult to pull it off behind Xhi's back." Reimu gave a heavy sigh. "Well while you're doing that, I'm gonna try and stop her. At the very least, I'll be able to measure her capabilities. Grab another healing potion in case I get injured too." And with that Reimu flew into the Bamboo Forest.

* * *

Reimu was flying over Xhi's shack at the moment, trying to collect her thoughts. She knew at this point the ensuing battle wasn't going to be an ordinary danmaku fight. As soon as she stepped on the lawn, she would have to fight very carefully. One wrong move, and she could end up heavily injured, or possibly even killed.

This house was definitely diffucult to find, though she had the foresight to relay the location to Yukari. That way people don't have to keep scrounging to find it.

With one final deep breath, she steps on the lawn, and just as with everyone else, Xhi opens the door as soon as she does. Why does her face seem so familiar? Where has she seen it before?

"Ah, I felt like this one would come pretty soon, though to be honest, you're a bit later on the punch than normal, Hakurei shrine maiden." Xhi said in a somewhat ambiguous tone. Reimu couldn't pinpoint whether the woman was just pointing something out, or if she was actively mocking her.

"You actually are human. I was starting to doubt that claim." Xhi walks towards Reimu, smirking. "Why yes, does that bother you?" Okay Xhi was definitely mocking her at this point. "Why are you spreading this killer instinct? What are you..." Xhi cuts her off by wagging her finger. "Ah ah ah. Don't think I'm going to say my reasoning just yet. What do you think I am, stupid. You'll find out in due time. And besides, you and I both know how these things go. So let's cut the formalities here and let our fisticuffs do the talking!"

With that sentence, Xhi suddenly vanished from her sight. Reimu proceeded to turn around, thinking Xhi was directly behind her, only to be met with dozens of the blood grenades Marisa encountered. Reimu immediately started moving in between whatever openings she could find in the massive barrage, while at the same time flying upwards, only to find nothing where the barrage had originated. '_Let me guess. Now Xhi is behind me._' She turned around and sure enough, her opponent was right there, about to launch what would no doubt be a devastating right hook. Reimu only dodges it by the literal skin of her teeth. '_That was too close._' Reimu knew if she wanted to win this fight, she would need to attack as soon as possible, and so she swings her gohei, to which in response, Xhi grabs her sword with her left hand and swings the blunt edge at the stick, easily overwhelming Reimu's strike with her strength. Reimu saw this coming however, and grabbed the senbon in her sandal before throwing them at Xhi in an attempted counterstrike. Key word being attempted, as Xhi grabbed all the senbon she threw with her pointer and middle fingers, then used those two fingers to split them all in half with practical ease. In the time it took for her to do this however, Reimu managed to get behind Xhi and was preparing to throw an ofuda at her. Xhi saw this coming though, and proceeded to slightly move her hand down, which caused Reimu to fall to the ground, revealing a form of telekinesis.

Reimu knew that if she hit the ground head-on, Xhi would more than likely use that as an opening to deliver a painful strike, and so with a bit of quick thinking, went into a streamlined position, put her right hand directly in front of her, and used her revved up ofuda to launch herself skyward while extending her left leg into a kicking position. And just as Reimu thought, Xhi was descending downwards with a kick of her own, and soon the two kicks collided, releasing a massive shockwave. Xhi's abnormal strength quickly proved too much though, and she soon thrust her leg backwards and started transferring that momentum into a punch. This time, Reimu knew she couldn't dodge it, and so cast a barrier to hopefully block the attack. It did succeed, however the punch not only shattered the barrier, but also sent Reimu flying backwards from the force of it. Once she landed however, Reimu reversed the momentum that was generated, turning it into a powerful jump, before unleashing a Fantasy Seal, hoping to keep distace. In response, Xhi made several rounded tentacles of blood to deflect the projectiles, before sharpening them into spikes, with Reimu only having a split-second to dodge them, barely avoiding impalement.

Xhi slowly started descending to the ground, finally giving Reimu a moment to catch her breath. Now she was seeing first-hand why Alice and Marisa had so much trouble. Every attack Reimu launched was countered by Xhi with ease, and could quickly lead into a nasty punish if she wasn't careful. Reimu knew she really only had one option at this point.

The ultimate expression of her ability to float, Fantasy Heaven. However, even it was risky, as while it did cause her to float out of reality, her ability to attack her bloodstream could still bypass it if it went that far. That was really the biggest problem with this fight. She could try and dodge all she wants, but when her opponent starts attacking her bloodstream, she was going to get hit regardlessly of what she did. If she was to use Fantasy Heaven, she couldn't give her the opening to do that, and with Xhi's reaction speed being as fast as it was, she doubted she could do that.

'_Still though,_' Reimu's breathing calms. '_It's my only shot._' Her muscles begin to slacken. '_I have to try it._' Reimu slowly closes her eyes, and utters those two words under her breath. "Fantasy Heaven." With that she takes to the skies and floats out of reality, before bombarding Xhi with projectile after projectile. Waves of amulets, ofuda, senbon and yin-yang orbs flew straight in her direction. She even threw in a couple of Fantasy Seals for good measure. Xhi looks up at the barrage with slight awe on her face, before smirking once more and snapping her fingers. Reimu did feel a breif, but sharp pain, but by then she knew her onslaught was too big to dodge. When all the projectiles finally hit their target, a massive explosion was generated right in front of Xhi's house, which ended up creating a small ravine.

Reimu finally calms herself, thinking the fight was finally over. '_Wait, what's that to my right?_' She looks in said direction... and promptly kicks herself for how foolish she was. To her right was Xhi, winding up a powerful roundhouse kick. The fact she was unscathed plus Reimu herself didn't have any outside injuries from unpinpointable sources unlike Alice and Marisa, suggested to Reimu that Xhi somehow dodged that entire bombardment, which even Reimu silently gave props for. However, as Reimu now realized, her bloodstream interaction wasn't limited to just attacking it, but she could manually disengage abilities as well. Which is exactly what she did with her Fantasy Heaven. With her opponent right next to her, Reimu had no time to dodge. With all her magic having been focused on that barrage, she didn't have enough left to cast another barrier. And with Fantasy Heaven disengaged, she couldn't phase through it. There was only one outcome here.

'_This is gonna bite._' And it certainly did as Xhi landed that kick straight into her temple, getting incredibly close to breaking her spinal cord, before said kick launched her into the treetops. Reimu groaned, but managed to get up despite her injuries. She knew she had zero chance of winning at this point, so without giving it a second thought, she decided to cut her losses and leave the vicinity before she got injured any further.

* * *

Xhi looked at Reimu, not with her normal contempt, but with genuine curiosity. She seemed more aware of her tactics than the other two so far, and knew when it was time to leave. Did she perhaps know something?

Xhi shook her head. Her house was in the deepest part of the Bamboo Forest, and wasn't discovered till this incident. There's no way she could know what she was planning. With that reassurance, she went back inside waiting for her next victim.

* * *

Yukari had snagged the potential healing potion for Reimu, and was now looking around the shrine. Looking at Reisen, she noticed a somewhat irritated expression on her face. '_What could be causing that kind of mood?_' Of course, Yukari herself was very worried, and she couldn't hide it this time. This was clearly a ruthless opponent who could take a lot and dish it right back out, and despite Fantasy Heaven she didn't have high hopes for Reimu winning this fight.

Soon the door opens up, with no knocking this time, and Yukari immediately grabs the healing potion and tosses it in its general direction. Reimu manages to catch it and garners a surpised look on her face. "Did you know this was going to happen? Reimu questioned. Yukari turned her head. "No, but it was a safe guess."

* * *

**I think I went a bit overboard on the fight scene. I had skipped out on any extra exposition this chapter because everyone both knows Xhi exists and are at the same place, that being the Hakurei Shrine, so I felt there was no need. I hope you guys don't mind me doing that. You probably will though.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**The Touhou franchise is owned by ZUN, and as such I own nothing in this story other than my own original creations.**

* * *

Reisen was inwardly scowling. The information they had gotten about Xhi from Reimu was telling of the woman's capabilities. Her telekinesis and ability to disengage Fantasy Seal were the most telling about her power, but her skill in combat wasn't glossed over either. But that wasn't what infuriated her. The entire time these people have been going through fight after fight with this woman and losing, and yet Reisen herself, the person with the most stakes in all this, had just been sitting on her hands, waiting for the others to do their thing.

Well she could wait no longer. As soon as Reimu had finished her story, she immediately stood up. "Yukari, open a gap to Xhi's house. I'm going after her." To say this surprised everyone was an understatement based on the looks on their faces. After around a minute of silence, Yukari herself started laughing, causing even more bewildered expressions on the faces of the other three, and Reisen to inwardly groan. Eventually, Marisa spoke up. "Okay, first Reisen says she wants to charge headfirst into a fight with someone who's curbstomped all three of us, and then Yukari starts laughing. Is there something we're missing here?"

At this point, Yukari had managed to calm herself before responding back. "Sorry about that, I just realized why Reisen was looking so irritated." Yukari obliges by Reisen's request and opens a gap near her destination. "Now, if you're looking to settle the score, I suggest you do it while still have this burst of drive." Reisen nodded to Yukari before heading through the gap to her destination.

* * *

Reisen was expecting to get dropped at the shack, not a couple feet away from it. Oh well, she was here no point griping now. The door opens as usual. '_Huh, her face does look intimately familiar. Wait, why is she smiling?'_

Xhi soon burst into a fit of laughter, and not the pleasent, joking kind she would've expected. This was the "I'm about to snap into a sadistic fit, so you better get as far away from me as possible" kind of laughter. There was that polite tone sure, but underneath it, Reisen could practically feel the primal hysteria wafting off her. And with that, whatever courage she had when going to face this woman wilted almost immediately, and all she wanted to do was get as far away from her as possible.

Xhi managed to calm herself before finally speaking."**My, I didn't think anyone actually made it out of that mess, and yet here you are, sanity and control intact.**" Reisen instinctively took a step back when she said that. '_How is this woman a human__?_' Her voice almost seemed garbled when she said those words, like there was a hidden demon that was finally breaking out. Still, Reisen knew she had stakes. She couldn't chicken out of this fight, and with that, some semblance of courage returned, though it was a far cry from what it was before.

"Listen Xhi, I dont care what the hell you're planning or why you're planning it. But here, you'll either release everyone under you're influence willingly or I'll force you to." At this Xhi started laughing even harder than before, calming herself after a few seconds, and then spoke in a voice that wasn't distorted this time. "Wow, that's a bold proclomation. The bravery you're displaying while facing me is rather amusing."

Xhi soon turns around, not allowing Reisen to see her face. "Still, you have potential. Potential I want to see brought out to it's fullest. Which is why I promise, upfront and wholeheartedly, to go against all my instincts, and not murder you here and now." Xhi soon starts chuckling. '_What about this situation is so funny to you?!_' Reisen had been screaming this in her head for a while now, almost like a mantra. "No." And with that word, Xhi turned her head, revealing her face had now been smeared with a cheshire cat grin so large it seemed physically impossible for the facial muscles required for the action to pull off, accompanied by bloodshot eyes higlighting her green irises. She soon spoke once again in that mangled tone. "**I'll just beat you so hard your ears will rupture from the screams you'll be making!**"

With those words, Xhi clences her fist... and Reisen screams so loud she swore her eardrums actually did rupture, before collapsing to the ground in agonizing pain. '_What in the world? It feels like my insides are being... compressed._' Reisen then coughs up so much blood that if it weren't for the irregular movement of her chest, you'd think she was vomiting it. Before she could move though, Xhi grabbed her by the head, before slowly closing her hand around it, purposefully straining the bones around her skull near their breaking point. All the while Xhi still had that massive grin on her face. Reisen feels the unendurable pain for a whole minute before finally losing consciousness.

* * *

Xhi drops her "opponent" before stretching her limbs. She could fully admit that what just happened was pretty great stress relief, but not good for flexing her legs, so to speak.

Before she goes back inside, she checks on her prior casualty, only to find them gone, with the only trace of what happened being a brief moment of a gap closing up, yet it was enough to make her smirk. '_So the Youkai Sage has finally found me. Good, took her long enough._'

With that thought she finally heads back inside. This next fight was certainly going to be interesting.

* * *

Shock was the ultimate euphemism for the general reaction of the room upon seeing Reisen's state. Quite frankly, they were appalled at just how much damage Xhi could cause if she wanted. Alice, Marisa and Reimu knew they were lucky to have not seen her full wrath.

Speaking of the rabbit girl, the other's could see her stirring, and eventually opening her eyes. She looks to the others with an almost inquisitive expression, before having a face that seemed like she realized what was going on. "I am never having a show of courage like that ever again!"

* * *

**I think I had a bit too much fun writing this chapter. Quite frankly, this is not only the shortest chapter so far, but it's also hands down one of the absolute darkest I will ever write for this story. I might have had fun with that scene, but I know blatant torture like this isn't something you should ever take lightly, and I tried my best to give the characters the appropriate reactions to Reisen's injuries. I wasn't kidding when I said I was going to be a massive jerk to her.**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

**The Touhou franchise is owned by ZUN, and as such I own nothing in this story other than my own original creations.**

* * *

If everyone was appalled before, they're blood was freezing now. They knew Reisen's injuries were bad, but to be outright tortured like that was disgusting, and showed once and for all that if Xhi was willing to cause greater harm, she would be doing it.

Yukari had been observing these conversations, and knew her only option was to manipulate a boundary, either between life and death, or existence and nonexistance. And even then it was risky, not because of any connections, but because Xhi was incredibly good at observing a situation, and it was going to be hard to sneak one of those under the rug.

Still, it was their only option to deal with this, so while the others were talking amongst themselves, Yukari, as quietly as possible, opened up a gap to Xhi's house and snuck through it, with no one being any the wiser.

* * *

Yukari had stepped out of the gap and as soon as she did, predictably, Xhi opened the door. She had to admit, her face did look familiar. '_Though I think all of us are accepting the fact that Xhi's psychic somehow__._'

"Ah, so the Youkai Sage arrives at my door. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Xhi accompanies this with a bow so low Yukari was sure she was deriding her. She wasn't going to let a little mockery stop her though. So her reply was, "Simple. I'm here for buisness."

She then manipulates the boundary of life and death... only to find Xhi still standing there, looking no worse for wear. '_Ok, let's try existence and nonexistence then._' She does so, and despite all expectations, Xhi is still standing there. '_Alright, what in the world is going on?_' Xhi tilts her head while garnering a curious look on her face before saying, "Well, what's your business?" '_Oh you master of feigning ignorance!_'

Yukari knew there was little chance of her winning at this point with how durable Xhi was, but she could still measure her capabilities. Yukari soon smirks, a plan formulating in her head. "Well, it seems I actually have to try."

With that, Yukari opens up several gaps behind herself and fires snakelike streams of magic out of each of them. Xhi immediately crafts a blood shield in response and, before Yukari could realize what was going on, rushes to her position and starts rearing back a punch. Yukari soon crafted a barrier of her own before retreating through a gap, knowing it wouldn't hold. What she hadn't expected was the punch to go through said barrier with practically zero resistance, almost like she was punching a vacuum. Yukari then unleashed an explosion from her umbrella, which Xhi, with an almost unnatural effortlessness, literally swatted aside, as if the explosion was a fly. However while the smoke was up, Yukari had launched an ambulance through one of her gaps, hoping to pin Xhi. She proceeded to punch said ambulane so hard, it crumbled before flying in Yukari's direction before exploding, forcing her to go in another of her gaps.

As it turns out, Yukari's destination of choice was Xhi's roof, which she proceeded to jump off before opening more gaps under Xhi which were thrusting out stop signs. Xhi jumped over the gaps when the signs were thrust out, only to be met with Yukari charging another explosion from her umbrella, causing her to gain a look of mild surprise before quickly casting another blood shield to absorb the blow, knocking her into a gap that Yukari had erected behind Xhi, before said gap closed on her waist, getting stuck. It didn't kill her like Yukari had hoped, but it at least pinned her.

At least, before Xhi did something Yukari had to resist the urge to rub her eyes at. She put her hands on each side of the gap, and tore it apart before vanishing. Yukari stood shocked for a moment, before quickly looking around the area, hoping to find and stop Xhi ambushing her. She then felt a tap on her shoulder.

Yukari quickly turned around, only to get punched in the face. Hard. Surprisingly, despite the force, Yukari didn't move an inch, other than falling on the ground. She turned around again... and proceeded to actually rub her eyes. Not only was half of Xhi's body in her back, but the rest was in the process of stepping out of it. And as soon as she did, Yukari gapped back to the Hakurei Shrine. She'd had enough mind screw for one session.

* * *

Xhi was actually rather proud of herself. Considering the crazy stuff in Gensokyo, it wasn't easy to make Yukari rub her eyes in confusion. She couldn't help but smirk at the prospect.

Now's not the time to celebrate though. The biggest fight, she can tell, is soon to come. And the others will soon be ensnared.

* * *

When Yukari came back, it was to the sight of Reimu pacing continually back and forth around the main room of the shrine, muttering random nonsense. Yukari could tell she was worried about her, which she would tease her on, but there were more important matters right now. Still, she noted the irony for later.

After putting her hand through a gap and grabbing another healing potion, she decided to interrupt her musing. "Reimu." She called out to her, but she didn't reply. '_She must be pretty deep in her thoughts._' "Reimu." She said her name louder, but still got no response. "Reimu!" That got her attention. "What, Yuka-" She promptly stopped herself. "Wait... Yukari!" She spouted before turning to her direction. While she had a brief look of relief on her face, it was quickly replaced with a scowl. "Give us a warning before you ditch us next time okay!" Yukari knew at that moment she was in for a long talk.

* * *

Reimu was, well, confused was an understatement. The story was normal at first, but it did suggest that Xhi had some sort of secret counterplay to at the very least Yukari's abilities, with the same sentiment possibly extending to all of them. The story then, again, played like everyone expected. At least until the very end, which once she heard, made her convinced she lost her brain.

She looked at the others' reactions, which made it clear she wasn't the only one who thought that. Everyone was looking at Yukari like she had more screws loose than normal in her head. She eventually asked the question on everyone's mind. "Are you sure you're not pulling our legs here?" To which Yukari replied, "Believe me, I was just as confused as you are."

Reimu then sighs heavily and says, "Well, I think the only way we have any shot is if we all worked together to take her down." Marisa then looks at her with an even more stupefied expression than before, which at this point, Reimu doubted was possible. "You do realize how unrealistic that sounds right?" Reimu immediately retorted with, "Well you should also realize how unrealistic it is to beat Xhi in a one-on-one fight. As crazy as it seems, it's our only option."

Yukari immediately stood from her seat. "Reimu's right. Unusual or no, we don't stand a chance against Xhi alone. I'll open up one final gap to her house. There's no turning back now. We need everyone's cooperation for this final clash. Any objections?" Everyone shook their heads. "Good." She opened up said gap. "Then, let's get going." Everyone soon stepped inside. However, Reimu hesitated a bit, having one final thought. '_Why was Reisen the only one who experienced that other side?_' After thinking for a bit, she got the thought out of her head and followed everyone else.

* * *

While she was trying to deny it, she couldn't avoid one thing. For the first time since creating the Hakurei Barrier, and possibly ever, she was genuinely scared. She didn't need to sum up the situation in her head, but who wouldn't be scared given the context.

Still, Gensokyo was a place she had protected for 1500 years, and she wasn't about to just let it fall. If she was to go down, she would go down fighting for something worth guarding.

They soon stepped in front of the titular house, however unlike every other time they'd Gone here, Xhi was already outside waiting. '_Seems she saw this coming._' With that thought, Yukari stepped forward. "Listen, I don't care what you're reasons for doing this are, or if it's just because you're bored, but I've protected this land for most of my life, and I'm not just going to watch as you tear it apart. This is the end of the-" She wen't to grab her umbrella, only to find she couldn't. "Wait, why can't I move?" She looked around and quickly realized she wasn't alone. Every single one of them was stock still. Or more accurately, paralyzed in place.

Then she heard a laugh, and if there was any semblance of idiocy left in their impressions of the woman they were facing, they were washed away then and there. She knew that wasn't a laugh of someone joking around, nor was it a laugh of a sadistic monster. This was the laugh of someone who had set a successful trap.

* * *

**If I didn't establish Xhi as a threat before, I definitely have now. Admittedly, this chapter had a lot of hurdles to clear, chief among them being making this chapter's fight scene convincing(which I'm not sure I did a good job at) and giving Yukari emotions other than a mixture of smugness and whimsy. Those combined with, quite frankly, me being lazy, are what caused this chapter to take so long to come out, and for that I'm sorry.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**The Touhou franchise is owned by ZUN, and as such I own nothing in this story other than my own original creations.**

* * *

Reimu was... horrified? Intrigued? Confused? Those and probably a whole other range of emotions she couldn't identify. Point being, she did not like the implications of Xhi bursting out in laughter when she and everyone else couldn't move.

"Oh wow. I'm sorry, it's just... very amusing to see you guys so ignorant. Before I explain to you what exactly is going on, first." She holds up her hand and snaps her fingers, and suddenly Reimu could see the strings Alice was talking about very clearly. To be honest, they looked less like strings and more like massive senbon. That is until Reimu noticed something that unnerved her. The strings were sucking in... something she couldn't pinpoint. Now they seemed like horrifying sapient parasites. And it was soon after she noticed it that the strings suddenly stopped, and then seemed to disappear from existence.

"There, now the so-called "killer instinct" is gone. Just like you wanted right?" Reimu couldn't help but scream. "What did you do!?" Xhi merely cocked her head to the side and smirked. "What, did you really think there wouldn't be a price for me doing what you wanted?" Reimu was undeniably furious now. "What! Did! You! Do!" This was not a question at this point, but a demand. In response, Xhi adjusted her tie and said, "Well I was about to explain that anyways, so I'll inform you. I was merely gathering supplies." At this Reimu, still having a very clear tranquil fury in her voice, asked, "What do you mean by "supplies"?" Xhi chuckled a bit at the question, before responding, "What do you think a blood manipulator would consider supplies?"

Reimu went paler than she ever thought she had. The strings were sucking blood. As in, literally everyone in Gensokyo except the five of them got a portion of their blood stolen. And Xhi's just calling it gathering supplies. '_How can one person be this much of a monster?!_' Xhi soon continued. "Of course, an easy ride wasn't going to happen, however. I would be stupid if I didn't think I was going to encounter resistance." Yukari soon replied, in a much calmer manner than everyone else could muster, "So what did you do?" Xhi looked somewhat surprised at this. "My, figured out I did something already, you're sharper than you made yourself out to be."

Xhi soon lowered her head. "Tell me, did any of you feel a power spike when I opened the door." That caused a shocked expression to appear on everyone's faces. Now they understood why they were called ignorant. They all felt a power spike when Xhi opened the door, they just completely dismissed it.

"You see, I was not always the nigh-unstoppable juggernaut you're confronting. Like all the other helpless folk in the village, I too didn't have anything going for me in terms of the power hierarchy in Gensokyo. Well, nothing except my ability of course. The power to manipulate the bloodstream. What it lacks in raw strength, it more than makes up for in versatility. My plan was simple. Wait for you to come to me, scan your bloodstream to figure out your abilities and overall physical aptitude, and update my bloodstream to counter what I find. And now that all five of you are here I've gained my biggest power boost yet. Now the only question is how long you can all stand before you fall. Try to keep this upcoming fight interesting, would you?"

The group now found they could move again, much to their relief, but Xhi gave nobody any time to react. In an instant she appeared in front of Reisen before delivering a nasty punch to her abdomen. Just before she would have started flying into the distance, Xhi grabbed Reisen's ears before flipping her onto her back, cracking the ground, before using the momentum gained to launch herself in the air and, after doing a couple of backflips, landed on her chest with a sickening crunch, knocking her out cold.

Xhi soon turned her head, and said two words that immediately spurred everyone into action. "Who's next?"

Yukari quickly rushed Xhi while holding out her umbrella before releasing a massive explosion, to which Xhi put up a shield before seemingly merging with it, anticipating the oncoming train, which proceeded to crumble on her shield before said shield literally launched Xhi out of it, who landed a nasty kick on Yukari's face. Immediately afterwards Xhi was met with two dolls on either side of her, signifying Alice was launching her attack. In response Xhi used Yukari's face as a platform, to jump upwards and elbow Reimu, who had been about to throw her senbon, in the chest before making a downwards sweeping motion with her arm, knocking her to the ground. Yukari, having recovered, then shot her umbrella at the intersection between Xhi and Marisa's positions, forcing Xhi, who had been moving for an offensive with Marisa, to reveal herself and swat the explosion aside, giving Marisa enough time to charge up her signature attack. "Master Spark!" Xhi, in response to the giant laser headed her way, made a red dragon head and neck that was adorned with spikes and a long narrow snout appear out of the ground, which fired a laser equivalent in size to the Master Spark, which quickly overpowered the attack, forcing Marisa to get out of the way.

"We've been getting you all wrong. You aren't naturally fast like we've been assuming. You've been shapeshifting to a smaller form, compenstating speed for durability." Yukari gritted her teeth. "That-" Xhi appeared behind her, sword raised. "You should really learn when to talk in a fight." Xhi quickly lowers her sword to Yukari's shoulder, but before it could hit Reimu blocked with her gohei, which was struggling under the pressure of her strike. Xhi took advantage of this, delivering a devastating gut punch which knocked Reimu into one of the bamboo, before launching herself towards Alice, who had been readying a shot with her revolver, and putting her hand on her chest. Alice soon felt her insides pushed back with enough force to nearly tear them apart, before coughing up blood and falling unconscious.

Yukari then goes to hit Xhi with her umbrella, to which Xhi simply swings her sword parallel and to the right of her, before swinging the sword upwards at a diagonal angle, causing a clean slash across her stomach and knocking her back, before looking to her right and seeing Marisa having finished charging something up. "Final Spark!" Marisa shoots yet another laser, this one even larger than the previous one. Then Yukari saw something that truly demonstrated the power of who they were facing. She raised her hand up and caught the oncoming attack with zero effort, before casually tossing it aside. Marisa was then stock still long enough for Xhi to roll a singular blood grenade towards her, which exploded when it hit her foot, launching her into the air before she fell hard on the ground, unconscious.

"Well, I must say I'm disappointed. I thought you would've lasted longer." Xhi starts walking towards Yukari armed with another blood grenade. "Well looks like you-" Xhi started to say, before a startled look showed up on her face and she jumped to the side, barely avoiding an oncoming ofuda. "Would you shut your mouth!" Reimu immediately walked out of the bamboo after screaming that. "I don't care if we're as outclassed as we are. I don't care if we have zero chance of winning. You are not getting away with this, and even if we fall we aren't going down without a fight!"

Yukari was stunned. Not only had Reimu stayed conscious even after the blow Xhi dealt, but aside from the obvious bruise on her stomach she looked no worse for wear. It took her a few seconds to say something, but she soon did. "As much as I hate to admit it, I don't think either of us can take her alone." Reimu replied, "You think I don't know that. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't work with any Youkai whatsoever, let alone fight alongside one. And yet, this is one scenario where it's something I can't avoid." Reimu offered Yukari a hand. "I should not be doing this. Get up, we got a battle to win."

Yukari took the hand, got on her feet, then looked Xhi in the eye. She had what seemed to be a twinkle of amusement in them. "Well, this is an impressive display of camaraderie. Very well, onto the next round. Show me what you can muster."

They needed no more words. Yukari immediately got up close and personal with Xhi, delivering a flurry of punches and kicks, all of which Xhi blocked, before smacking her aside and jumping back, barely avoiding a Fantasy Seal, before peppering the ground with blood grenades, forcing them on the defensive. Yukari then caught Xhi in multiple gaps wrapped around her limbs, which she broke out of quickly, however Reimu took advantage of the distraction to deliver a powerful kick to Xhi's face, knocking her to the ground. Reimu felt a sharp pain in her face for seemingly no reason, but she knew better. '_She's transferring damage across bloodstreams. That's where the untraced damage was coming from._' With that knowledge in her head, she followed to the impact point, hoping to press the advantage she got. However, a blood tentacle sprouted from the ground and knocked her aside, though she quickly regained her footing. The tentacle then turned into a dragon head which shot a laser at Yukari, who was directly behind Xhi and attempting to attack her while her focus was on Reimu. She was forced to dodge the oncoming attack and shoot an explosion from her umbrella, which Xhi swatted aside before raising her left arm to block a kick from Reimu, who kept applying force to it, dragging Xhi's feet across the ground. At least until a gap wrapped around her right leg, tripping her up both literally and figuratively. "Huh?" That was the opening Yukari needed to launch a train straight into Xhi's back, which Reimu had gotten out of the way of, before flying ahead of said train and stopping directly above both it and Xhi. "This incident is resolved. Fantasy Seal!"

This one not only hit it's target, but also the train she was riding on, causing a beautiful but fiery explosion with Xhi caught in the center, one which knocked her to the ground in front of her house.

Reimu soon descended next to Yukari. "Give it up Xhi. You've lost." Xhi proceeds to get up with almost zero visible effort, looking no worse for wear. "I see that now. It's clear that I underestimated your teamwork." Xhi proceeded to let out a small chuckle, and then Yukari noticed she was faintly glowing. "However, I've been saving one last explosive surprise. Ciao." Yukari immediately shouted, "Reimu, barrier now!" She didn't argue with that tone and immediately put one up for the both of them, and not a moment too soon. Almost immediately after she did that, a massive blood shockwave emanated out from Xhi, one which was very quickly cracking the barriers. Even with it still up, thet could feel the shockwave almost tear them apart, which made it clear the barrier could only soften the blow. After 19 seconds, the shockwave dissipated, and Reimu couldn't help but fall to her knees.

Yukari had soon walked towards Reimu, though she was struggling to stand. "Well, looks like Xhi killed herself in a last ditch attempt to put us down." Reimu looked forward upon hearing her say that and sure enough, Xhi was lying there motionless, seemingly vacant. "I guess that means we won." Yukari forced a smile. "Yeah we did. Come on, let's get everyone to Eientei." As they were doing that however, Yukari still had a few questions on her mind. '_If Xhi simply wanted blood, then why go as far as she did, both to get it and in the final fight? She outright said she was as human as the ones in the village, so it couldn't have been to spice things up. And how did we even win when she adapted to take us all on at once? Something isn't right here._' If Yukari had taken the time to look back however, she would've seen Xhi's hand almost imperceptibly... twitch.

* * *

**In case you didn't understand what Xhi said before the fight started, let me spell it out for you. I have created Gensokyo's version of... is Doomsday the right charater to reference here. Probably not, but who else comes to mind.**

**Now I'm going to say this upfront. No, the reactive evolution thing wasn't something I just slapped in there with zero clues. Obviously there was the whole thing with her immunity to boundary manipulation, however, believe it or not, that wasn't the first clue that I put in there. I don't know if anybody noticed this, an if so nobody pointed it out, but there was actually an inconsistency between Chapters 2 and 3 that was deliberately placed there as a way to point to this. Namely... how can Xhi take a Master Spark point blank without a scratch when a revolver shot blew her lungs apart? Either that revolver has a lot more power than we thought, which is very unlikely because the recoil probably would've destroyed Alice's arm if that was the case, or what actually happened, Xhi hadn't gained that durability until she encountered Marisa. This also explains why Xhi, in that same chapter, said 'You lost this fight the moment you stepped to confront me.' It wasn't an idle boast. She genuinely had lost the moment she stepped up to bat because Xhi simply adapted too fast for her to have a chance. Go back and take a closer read at the chapter before this, because that isn't the only detail I put in them that will be relevant later, and I'm going to be hiding a lot of clues like that.**

**On a side note, I actually sprinkled in a couple references to other media. Go ahead and see if you can find them. I'd be genuinely impressed if you did. And if you haven't guessed yet, no I'm not done with this story. Not even close. This is just the first arc, I have quite a bit more planned. Xhi, being secretly alive, is still going to have a major impact on the story. How? You'll just have to wait and see.**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

**The Touhou franchise is owned by ZUN, and as such I own nothing in this story other than my own original** **creations.**

* * *

_6 months later..._

The moon is a place people generally don't give a second thought. A planet orbiting our own with nothing remarkable going on. That's what the general populus thinks, unaware of the celestial objects deeper truths. For you see, there is a bustling city on the moon, but the inhabitants of said city would do anything to keep it a secret.

The Lunar Capital... was a very odd city. If the Outside World was more modern, and Gensokyo was an ancient land, this city could be classified as a mix of the two, giving it an almost futuristic feel. With talk skyscrapers and quaint little houses, enormous palaces and underground chambers, all made with a strange mix of a mysterious bamboo and advanced metal. Under normal circumstances, it would look almost bewitchingly beautiful.

Key phrase being "under normal circumstances". For as of current, the city was under a massive attack, and the once proud city on the moon will soon be nothing more than the remains of a warzone.

* * *

Trying to run away from this blitzkrieg was like an ant trying to run away from someone crushing it. It wasn't going to happen. That didn't stop the general panic-fueled populus from trying.

However, one girl was running in a different direction from the rest. She was around 4'7" and had short purple hair with dark blue accents, as well as red eyes. She wore a black buisness suit with a white undershirt and a blue tie, accompanied by a gray skirt on. However, her most striking features were the short rabbit ears on the top of her head.

This was Reisen. No, not Reisen Udongein Inaba, a different Reisen. In fact, let's call her Reisen 2 two avoid confusion.

Reisen 2 rounded a corner, trying to hide from the attacker. After said attack started, she had decided to try and warn the Lunarian leader about the situation. However, the panicking people, as well as the fact that the dragon sentries seem to be intentionally trying to cut off escapes, was making that diffucult. '_If only we noticed her sooner._'

* * *

_Flashback..._

_Reisen 2 had just finished a training session from hell brought upon by one of her recent masters, and was going to ask them what she needed to do next, having gotten used to her new routine. However, when she went inside one of the rooms to do so, she almost screamed._

_There, lying on the floor, was a girl who was 5' flat with sandy blonde hair that went slightly below her waist and lifeless golden eyes. She was wearing a white long-sleeved blouse with a navy blue dress over it, with both having 3 yellow buttons and 3 red buttons respectively. The dress also had a belt strapped onto it, which had a circle-shaped buckle with gold on the edges and a black center with a golden cross with a circle around it. However, the entire outfit was blood-stained to such a degree that it became hard to tell the colors apart._

_This was one of her masters, Watatsuki no Toyohime, and she had clearly been attacked and killed without anyone's knowledge. This also meant that someone was likely in the Lunar Capital at this very moment._

_Her next course of action was clear in her mind. She had to warn her other, now only master, about the situation at hand, and fast._

_She didn't know how long she ran through the palace, but she eventually found who she was looking for in the courtyard._

_It was a girl who was 5'3" with shoulder-length purple hair wrapped in a ponytail by a yellow ribbon with brown eyes. She wore a similar outfit to Toyohime, but the dress had a few notable differences, namely the fact that it was dark red, went further up her outfit and had no buttons. She also had a steel sword that had a very slight curve on her waist._

_This was Watatsuki no Yorihime, and at the moment she seemed somewhat distracted. That didn't matter at the moment._

_"Yorihime, we've got a problem!" She didn't even bother trying to hide the panic in her voice, hoping it would catch her attention. It managed to work, and she turned around with a confused expression on her face. "What's got you so-" she didn't get to finish her sentence._

_Reisen 2 wanted so desperately to warn somebody, anybody of what was going on, but she felt so paralyzed at the sight before her she couldn't even scream. Standing behind Yorihime was a figure seemingly cloaked in shadow who had just succeeded in ambushing the girl, pushing her hand clean through her chest, ripping out her heart in the process. Within another moment she clenched her fist, crushing the exposed organ, before she kicked her victim's lifeless body to the ground._

_It was only then did she hear her speak. "**Are you saddened by their deaths? Don't worry. You'll join them soon enough.**" The voice only added to the chill going down her spine. It was distorted, almost like the person was glitched. However, it was clearly identifiable as a woman speaking. It also gave of a feeling of deep-rooted anger, one which contained a somber, almost reluctant undertone. In short, nothing about the way she was speaking made any sense, and without being able to discern it it only became more terrifying, causing her to focus on it even more. It was a vicious feedback loop that almost made her catatonic._

_The figure soon flew up and launched a massive attack on not just the palace, but on the Lunar Capital as a whole._

_Flashback end._

* * *

Reisen 2 knew this wasn't a threat they could take on. She needed to warn their leader and get everyone evacuated from the city. But with what was happening it was becoming more and more difficult to do so.

"**Found you!**" That was the last thing Reisen 2 heard before she felt a cut across her waist and all went black.

* * *

Despite the seemingly perfect(well, not so much anymore) city, even the Lunar Capital had it's fair share of criminals, and as such it had it's own prison. Among the biggest in their eyes however, are the drinkers of the Hourai Elixir.

Sitting in one of the lower chambers of the prison was one such drinker. A woman about 5'6" tall with midnight black hair and red eyes. She also happened to be wearing an orange one-piece dress that went to the floor.

This was Chang'e, whose circumstances for drinking the elixir are unknown and sometimes debated among her kind. She could feel the carnage that was going on outside, but due to her bound state she could regrettably do nothing to stop it.

She soon heard the roof of her cell partially collapse, but before she could look up to see what happened, she felt a mysterious power wash over her before falling unconscious.

* * *

_Back in Gensokyo..._

Reimu had previously been going on a trip to visit Marisa, however when she got there it unexpectedly started raining. Instead of being freaked out like you would expect someone to though, she only let out a heavy resigned sigh. '_Why are you doing this Tenshi._'

Thus, Reimu and Marisa, along with several others they picked up along the way, were currently on their way to beat up a probably bored celestial. Little did they know this incident had a less obvious outcome than what appeared on the surface.

* * *

Now you might be wondering where exactly they were going, to which I point you to a place called Bhaavagra, which is a giant rock with a surface covered with flowers that's almost merged with the clouds.

Sitting on the edge of said rock was a girl who was 4'11" with blue hair that went down to her waist and dark red eyes. She was wearing a white blouse with a black band down the center that had four buttons, as well as a light blue dress paired with an apron that had symbols that looked vaguely like cloud patterns on the edges. The apron also had rainbow, diamond-cut paper strips attached to the outside of it, with the entire outfit tied together with a cyan bow on her waist. Adorned on her head was a black bowler hat with 2 peaches and 4 leaves added to the top for decoration. Finally there was a golden sword with a black handle put in a sheath on the back.

This was Tenshi Hinanawi, who at the moment was very... disturbed. She had found out about the little weather incident repeat relatively quickly, due to her being the one who caused those prior shenanigans to begin with. Yet she also knew she didn't cause it this time around. There was clearly something, or more accurately someone else at play here, and while she knew a battle with a sizable chunk of Gensokyo's population was unavoidable, it would be foolish to not investigate who caused what would inevitably be a massive misconception. '_Looks like I need to ask Iku to take me to the Dragon God after this._'

* * *

Deep in the Bamboo Forest(though not as deep as Xhi's house), was an old Japanese style mansion made out of a mixture of the native bamboo, paper and wood. The place was almost like a maze, with numerous illusions set throughout the long, winding hallways. It also happened to be Gensokyo's equivalent of a hospital, so it did get pretty regular visitors despite the circumstances.

However, none of those factors mattered as of now. For this place, like the Lunar Capital before it, was under an attack that would leave the place with no survivors.

* * *

Currently running through the burning wreckage filled with a massively increasing pile of dead bodies was a girl who stood at 4' flat with shoulder length black hair and dark red eyes. She wore a frilly, pink nightgown with red stitches, as well as a carrot necklace and white sock. Finally, like the 2 Reisens, she had two rabbit ears on top of her head, though they were rounder than theirs.

This was Tewi Inaba. No relation to Reisen Inaba. At the current moment she was heading towards on of her many trap doors she typically used as escape routes, although it was usually after she played one of her pranks, typically on the aforementioned Reisen.

Suddenly she felt a massive blow to her ribcage, before being slammed against the burning wall of the building. She knew from what was going on that one of said ribs broke from the impact and pierced her heart, and that she was bleeding internally very, very quickly because of it. The last thing she saw before she fell unconscious was a shadowy figure running off in a separate direction.

* * *

Currently sifting through Eientei's medicine cabinets was a woman who stood at 5'7" with white hair tied in a braid that went down to her knees and dark grey, almost pure black eyes. She wore a two piece dress with it's red and blue colors swapped for each one. Each piece also has a constellation pattern sprinkled throughout as well as 6 strings tying the top piece together and a band that holds the dress structure. Finally, she carried a bow and a quiver of arrows for whenever she got into a fight.

This was the resident doctor of Gensokyo, Eirin Yagokoro, who, like everyone else, was caught off guard by the sudden attack. As if that wasn't enough, Eirin had somehow lost the princess in this whole affair.

Her thoughts were cut short when she heard a finger snap, and before she could find where it came from, she blacked.

* * *

Opposite to our heroine's destination gateway of Youkai Mountain lies a meadow on a hill that had an almost poisonous atmosphere due to the nature of the flowers in the area. This place was called by many Nameless Hill.

Currently wandering through the area is the actual Reisen Inaba, who was intending to head towards Youkai Mountain with the others, but got her left and right mixed up and ended up here. '_I'm a retired soldier, I shouldn't have this problem!_'

She eventually decided to turn around and head back, however she quickly felt something grab her head before she could. "**Your potential has run out!**"

'_That voice!_' was the last thought she had before she felt a pressure in her neck, falling unconscious immediately afterward.

* * *

When Eirin came to, she realized she was in a near pitch-black room of some kind, as well as not being able to move by virtue of being on a chair with something binding her hands around it.

Looking at her surroundings, she was surprised to see she was not only in company, but also with people she recognized. Strapped to the chair on her left was Chang'e who, while she never got the chance to meet personally, had heard the reports on her actions several hundred years back.

It was the person on her right that both relieved and unnerved her. It was a woman who was 5'3" with knee-length black hair and dark brown eyes. She was wearing a pink shirt that was fit so loosely the sleeves covered her entire arms, with four small white bows separated in two by a button of the same color, as well as a much larger one on the collar. This was paired with a red skirt that fell to the floor which had several patterns on it, all complimented by a very clear unearthly beauty.

This was Kaguya Houraisan, a prior princess of the moon, and while Eirin was happy she wasn't caught in the massive attack, she still didn't like that they were in a similar situation. Namely, tied up and at the mercy of their unknown captor.

Speaking of being tied up, Eirin decided to look at the bindings next. They were a very deep scarlet red and extended all the way to the ground. Were they ruby perhaps? Eirin gave them a quick tug before debunking those suspicions. If it was ruby, it would have broken with that tug, and besides the material didn't feel right. It felt... disturbingly crusty.

"Eirin, what's going on?" Looking to her right, she could see Kaguya awake and looking at her with an expression that mixed curiosity with worry. Looking to her left she saw Chang'e was also coming too, however she quickly looked back at Kaguya before saying, "I honestly don't know." Right before the wall in front of them started gaining a static glow.

What came on said wall immediately set the scene for what was to come. It was a woman wearing a purple skirt with what looked to be dragon heads at the bottom, with a tan jacket over it as well as a red bow tie that had the addition of a microphone. What caught their attention immediately however was her head, or rather, lack thereof, as it appeared to have been completely blown apart, due to the shower of blood around the body.

Eirin was mortified, and she didn't need to look around to know everyone else felt the same. The person that was once Sagume Kishin was now nothing but a headless corpse. They didn't have time to dwell on their thoughts though, as the next picture soon showed it's revolting face.

It was a picture of Toyohime, who had small, but visible holes all over her body, clearly showing she had been skewered. After a few seconds it showed Yorihime lying on the round with a hole in her chest where her heart would otherwise lie. It was at that moment something clicked for Eirin.

"By any chance did the Lunar Capital get caught in a surprise attack?" Chang'e hesitantly nodded at this, confused but not to a degree which overwhelmed the horror on her face. A picture of Reisen 2 cut in half soon showed itself, but despite it being as disturbing as the rest, the implications of Chang'e's response caused a different worry to go through her mind at the moment. '_Please don't tell me..._'

Eirin's fears were almost immediately confirmed once the next picture came on "screen". It was a picture of Tewi, lying against a decrepit wall of what was once Eientei, charred almost beyond recognition. From a glance, Eirin could tell that her ribs were not only cracked, but one of them had punctured her heart, meaning luckily for her, she likely died from a quick internal bleeding before the flames that caused this consumed her body.

Kaguya couldn't hold back her tears anymore, and Eirin honestly didn't blame her. Despite prior experiences, she was absolutely terrified, especially with the knowledge that she could've done nothing to stop a lot of these. She doubted Chang'e was doing much better.

And the "presentation" only got worse.

The next picture was a lot darker than the previous ones, however she could clearly see the figures of both Seiran and Ringo, who seemed to have had their throats slit before being stuffed into a cupboard of some kind.

Then the last picture came up. Chang'e proceeded to lose both her lunch and her breakfast.

It was a picture of Reisen Udongein Inaba lying in the fields of what was clearly the Nameless Hill with her head twisted a full 180 degrees and her eyes completely gouged out of their sockets.

Eirin couldn't look. She couldn't see someone so... '_Wait why are the bindings glowing?!_' The current situation suddenly clicked for her, and she panicked. She tried desperately to get out knowing what they likely represented at the moment, but the makeshift handcuffs had sapped too much of their strength for her to put a dent in their structure. She almost immediately lost consciousness.

* * *

Tenshi never stood a chance.

Maybe one or two of the Gensokyans there she could take on, but when the entire crew decided to show up, she may as well have resigned from the start.

However, before Reimu left, she looked up at the sky and scowled, seeing the weather still wacked up despite Tenshi's defeat.

'_Well... this is more complicated than we originally thought._'

* * *

Currently waking up was a woman who was about 5'3" with white hair that almost looked bleached going down to he ankles and fiery red eyes. She wore a tan short-sleeved shirt that looked almost tattered and red baggy pants with suspenders covered in diamonds that were a similar color to her shirt, which on closer inspection looked to be fire protection wards of some sort.

This was Fujiwara no Mokou, and at the moment she was somewhat confused.

'_Weird. This was not where I fell asleep._'

Said place she had woken up in seemed to be a room of some sort. It had no decoration, although the interior was lit with an eerie red glow.

She soon heard a door open up behind her before looking quickly in that direction.

On most people's faces, she would imagine the person at the door would elicit some sort of confusion. Not her though. Her face changed into a mixture of relief and horror. Those brilliant emerald green eyes were ones she could recognize anywhere.

"How's it going," Xhi called out before stepping forward. "Sister?"

* * *

**I'm sorry for taking so long to post, I am a very lazy human being and I should not have taken two months to do this. That and tech problems. Lot's of tech problems. That being said, welcome to the end of the first of three interludes. Holy information dump we have a lot to get through! I will try to explain everything I put here to the best of my abilities.**

**Going bit by bit, let's start with the Lunar Capital, and by extension Eientei because they both have similar things going on here. I tried to keep the fact Xhi was the attacker a secret the best I could, but you probably figured it out by the end of the Lunar Capital mess. Also for those who spotted it, yes the typo was very much intentional. You're welcome.**

**Next, let's go over what happened with the whole Scarlet Weather Rhapsody repeat as well as Reisen's death in particular. So, why did the weather thing happen? Well, I don't know how many people know this, but the Lunar Capital actually has another name. That being the Palace of the Dragon God, who is one of if not the single most powerful entity in the Touhou canon. Another thing to not is due to the fact that the entire reason nature is even a thing in this universe is due to the Dragon God, all life technically worships it whether they want to or not. As such by not only destroying the Lunar Capital to an irreparable degree but also killing almost everyone in it, Xhi inadvertently put a sizable dent in the Dragon God's power. Why is this important? Well, one of the Dragon God's abilities... happens to be controlling the weather. As such, due to it likely taking the Dragon God a bit to get a hang of it's weakened state, the weather suddenly went haywire. Don't worry, as you'd expect the change isn't permanent. It'll get back under control soon enough. By the way, Iku's not going to show up in this story beyond a mention or two in case your curious.**

**As for why I gave Reisen of all people a bad sense of direction. I couldn't really think of a better way for her to die at the Nameless Hill. Why did I want her to die there specifically? I might explain that in a future story if I write one, but as it stands that's one thing that will remain a mystery. On another note, poor Reisen. I gave her the absolute worst treatment in this book. I will probably make this up to the moon rabbit if I ever right another story.**

**Now let's go over... that scene. This is going to be a mess to explain. So first, let's get the obvious out of the way. Yes, I just killed three Hourai immortals. No, they are not coming back. As for what exactly happened, I remember seeing a couple of stories, no shout outs guys, that killed Hourai immortals for good via another opponent sapping them of their life force, which is something I could definitely see doing so. With that in mind, how in the world is Xhi able to do that. Well. as established last chapter, Xhi's ability is to manipulate the bloodstream. Here's the thing however, it's never specifies whether or not it has to be a human one. It only says she can manipulate bloodstreams, which in classic Touhou fashion, means anything that can qualify as a bloodstream. That means the electricity in machines, the water in trees and clouds, or in this case, souls and life force. So yes, Xhi used her ability to pretty much absorb their lifeforce into her body, which will have unforeseen side effect that I will not get into right now. This fact will get explained in story, but I figured you guys would want an answer long before I was planning on revealing this fact, so here you go. As for the video... to be honest, I have zero reasons for that which doesn't lead into spoilers other than I'm a horrible person. Plain and simple.**

**Finally, let's explain the scene that ends the chapter. I'm pretty sure that other than literal mystery savants, I was the only person who saw this coming. However, as with other reveals in this story, looking at general context clues given throughout the first arc would allow you to eliminate a lot of potential suspects. First, it's been established by multiple people in this story that Xhi is human, nothing more, nothing less. This immediately gets rid of an youkai of lunarians, which amounts to a lot of characters in the franchise. This should also be a character that everyone who fought Xhi would recognize. Her face is definitely proof of that. It also can't be Reimu and Marisa and not just because I feel like being a prick to the main cast. If Xhi was the sister of one of these two characters, wouldn't they recognize the name. Even if it didn't hit them then, it definitely would when they're literally standing in front of her. As it stands they are safely of the list. I'm also going to take the liberty of eliminating any PC-98 and one-shot characters since none of them are appearing in this story anyways. Aside from Alice, who's had more Windows appearances than PC-98 ones. And for our final qualification, not to insult any of the Touhou cast, but they got to be decently old. Xhi has shown herself to be weirdly knowledgeable about the nuances of Gensokyo multiple times in the first arc, which is not something that a teenager or someone who's just barely become an adult would pick up on. Even if you're Reimu or Marisa. As such Kosuzu is eliminated from contention. I'm also going to take the liberty of eliminating Akyuu because she's just... weird in that regard.**

**Despite strict qualifications, there are two characters that fit the bill. The aformentioned Fujiwara no Mokou and Sakuya Izayoi. These two are further supported by the fact that Xhi's name is actually Japanese, not Chinese. I'm willing to bet a lot of people thought the x in her name was a stand in for c, making her name chi, which is a Chinese concept based on a person's life force that's commonly associated with martial arts. And while that would absolutely fit in some capacity, it's not what I was going for. The x is actually a stand in for s, which turns her name into shi, Japanese for death. And well, considering what Xhi does this chapter it definitely fits. This is also a cheeky reference to her schemers mind, because I deliberately named her after what would be the Japanese equivalent to Xanatos, as a omage to the Xanatos Gambit, a type of plan where the planner benefits from every feasible outcome. In fact, I was originally going to just name her Xanatos, and the reason I didn't was a combination of Xhi being Japanese, not Greek, and me risking copyright issues from the company that made Gargoyles.**

**With all of that said, out of the two canidates, Mokou is the only one with physical evidence. When Reisen confronts Xhi for the first time, she specifically says Xhi's face looks intimately familiar. Notice the adjective. I don't exactly think Sakuya has visited Eientei enough for anybody to justify Reisen saying that about her at all, compared to Mokou who's been visiting Eientei on a regular basis for 500 years. This line makes a lot more sense if it's referring to Mokou because of it.**

**And with that... we've covered everything. TV Tropes, here is your Cerberus Syndrome. This is the single darkest chapter I will ever write, zero question. In part due to this being the only chapter where people die. We wont be seeing Xhi again till the tail end of the story, however I do have ideas to keep you occupied while she's gone. Anyways, I'm just rambling at this point and I need a break from this so i'm going to cut it here. See you after I post the... second interlude.**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

**The Touhou franchise is owned by ZUN, and as such I own nothing in this story other than my own original creations.**

* * *

_October 6, 738-Well. Today has been... interesting to say the least. I had fallen asleep soundly in my little hut last night, yet when I woke up I seemed to be in the alleyway of a village. Even weirder, I had felt something coursing through my veins, something which I couldn't put my finger on at the time. Then a couple odd occurrences happened before I realized I now have magical abilities. I know I wasn't working on the art, so what was the catalyst for me suddenly gaining these powers? Eh, more food for thought I suppose. Anyways, I decided to use these abilities to sneak around in an attempt to figure out where I was. It didn't take me long to realize I was apparently in an area that was sealed off from the rest of the world 200 years ago. I know I have some pretty crazy ambitions, but how'd I manage that?! Anyways, I need to get myself oriented in this new place, starting by making a base of operations. Where that's gonna be... at the moment I have no clue. But I'll think of something._

_December 8, 738-It took a couple of months, but I've finally got a proper headquarters going. Well, not really, I still need to build the underground labyrinth but my ideas for that aren't going to come to fruition till much later. Speaking of that, I actually found something in this forest that I've been practically drooling at recently. I found a settlement housing those monsters. And one of those means a gold mine of their technology, which means more opportunities to steal and study it, which means a more likely chance to develop counter-tech. Easy access to that is one of the reasons I picked this spot actually, the other being that I'm pretty sure only one person other than myself knows about this place, and I doubt they're coming here anytime soon, if at all. These past couple of months have largely consisted of me gathering materials to construct the surface part of my base, getting a rough layout of the forest in my mind and trying to figure out what my ability is based around and pushing that to it's limits, the last of which I'm still gonna do. I never realized how fascinating experiments with magic could be. However, I think it's time to make sure my thieving skills aren't rusty._

_January 16, 1573-I think I've gathered more than enough technology to finish my renovations up pretty soon. Even better, I don't think anyone ever noticed me despite knowing something was going on. Sis is here however, and I have no doubt she'll notice if I continued. She's likely to have figured out what I was doing back then anyways. I'm going to finish my base, then study the remaining technology I've got._

_August 10, 2003-At last, after all this time I've finally got blueprints for potential counter-tech designs, which will be necessary for achieving my goals. However, I don't have the power needed to launch a viable assault, and manually increasing my power through training will no doubt catch someone's attention. How can I garner the power I desire? I need to come up with a plan._

_September 28, 2004-I've been keeping tabs on the recent incidents that have been going on for some inspiration on ideas, and there are a couple things of note. First, it seems the regular resolvers of these incidents are no doubt competent in solving them, but they are also rather headstrong, by which I mean they typically solve them by shooting the masterminds in the face. Speaking of said masterminds, I've also noticed that after causing their incident, they've always sat in one spot practically waiting for the aforementioned incident resolvers to come knocking. They probably had no reason to, but I'll make sure to dispose of them first if I ever decide to cause one. Actually... hold on. Maybe I don't need to do that. Yeah, I've got enough spare tech to make the necessary contraptions. That'll probably work._

_April 3, 2016-Mission Complete._

* * *

**What, I had to make up for lost time somehow.**

**I don't think I need to say it, but compared to everything else so far this chapter is very... out of place. Up until this point, I've been making the stakes of the story very apparent, and every chapter save the first has had some form of action going on. Then I throw this in out of seemingly nowhere. While I won't say my reasoning, I will say this was very intentional on my part.**

**Another thing I would like to point out is when Gensokyo was created this story. Yes I have decided to push back it's creation to around 585. I don't like messing with canon, but again, I have a good reason for this.**

**The next chapter is when we finally start the second arc, which will mainly consist of the events of Antimony of Common Flowers, just with the events of Chapter 8 being in full effect. To avoid redundancy, I will only be talking about encounters in the story that are directly changed by these events. However, I thought I'd still warn you guys in case you're uncomfortable with people rehashing events, for lack of a better way to say it.**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

**The Touhou franchise is owned by ZUN, and as such I own nothing in this story other than my own original creations.**

* * *

_15 months later..._

"I'm starting to hate this place." Reimu was very clearly exasperated. Ever since the whole weather shenanigans, which were thankfully temporary, the earth rabbits in the Bamboo Forest have changed from being relatively harmless pranksters, to what are Gensokyo's equivalent of mindless feral beasts. And like what happened with the weather, Reimu had no idea what caused the sudden change, nor did anyone she asked. Though it was likely Yukari knew something.

And now she had the Perfect Possession rumors to deal with on top of that.

"I noticed something from Marisa earlier." That came from Kasen Ibaraki, who was a woman standing around 5'5" with shoulder length pink hair and red eyes. She was wearing a white top with sunflower-like frilled edges, having a maroon tabard with vine-like patterns on top of it as well as a green knee-length skirt. Just below her collar was a flower-shaped ornament, yet three other attributes were of note. The first was an unconnected shackle attached to her left arm, with the other arm being replaced with a bandaged replica being the second. The last thing of interest were the two buns wrapped around her head, which were clearly covering something, though it was unclear what.

"What's that?" This piqued Reimu's interest. A lead, perhaps?

"Perfect Possesion could take place by mutual consent, just like what we've been doing." Kasen started, "But now we know that in some cases, Perfect Possesion could occur while bypassing the master's consciousness."

"Yeah, I was totally unaware of it when I was perfect possessed." Reimu shivered at the memory. '_I wonder what Reisen's been up to?_'

"If that's the case, it could be abused as a tool to one-sidedly take over anyone's body..." Kasen said gravely.

"That's... a horrific hypothesis." While it wasn't a lead, Reimu didn't like the implications of what Kasen was saying.

"Horrific indeed." Well... that wasn't a voice Reimu expected to hear. She turned to the source. "Keine?"

Said Keine was a woman standing at 5'3" with silver hair that had cyan highlights as well as brown eyes. She wore a blue knee-length dress with white short sleeves as well as a red ribbon tied in a sort of bow under her collar. She also wore a hat which looked like some sort of extravagant building on her head, which had another ribbon tied on top of it.

However, looking closely, it was clear Keine was the Associate, not the Leader.

That honor went to the person next to her. A girl at around 5' flat with shoulder-length icy blue hair and sickly red eyes. She was wearing a long-sleeved shirt as well as pants, both being the same color of the bamboo in the forest. There was a sheath inconspicuously placed on her waist, clearly containing a knife of some form. Yet the detail that caught Reimu's attention were the two rabbit ears on her head, longer and pointier than the earth rabbits she'd been encountering constantly.

"A moon rabbit?" As soon as Reimu voiced her thoughts, the girl sent her a glare that got close to making her blood run cold. Whoever this was, they absolutely didn't appreciate Reimu calling them that.

The girl gave off the overall impression of a trained soldier. Tense posture, camouflaged outfit, she even had a battle-hardened stoic look in her eyes. Yet something about her aura felt... off to Reimu. It seemed familiar, not enough for her to recognize it, but enough to catch her attention. She could tell this girl was not someone to trifle with.

"I'm curious Keine, why exactly are you taking part in this incident?" Kasen was inquiring about something which Reimu silently admitted she was curious about too. Keine wasn't the type of person to actively solve incidents, so either this particular one is more threatening to the village than originally thought, or there was another reason she was taking part in this whole mess.

Keine however, proceeded to stare at them with an incredulous expression. "You mean you don't know?!" Now Reimu and Kasen were thoroughly confused, with both looking at each other before shrugging their shoulders, with Reimu asking the obvious question. "Don't know what?"

Keine rubbed her posterior lacrimal crest before replying, "Mokou had gone missing sometime after the recent weather shenanigans, and I've been looking for her for quite a while now." Reimu was about to retort before realizing Keine was right. They had seen Mokou nowhere these past 15 months, let alone anywhere in the Bamboo Forest.

"How ironic, and inhabitant of a place where people commonly get lost going missing." Reimu would have deadpanned at Kasen for that, but her mind was on other things at the moment. If Mokou had gone missing during that timeframe, then it's possible the culprit behind one, if not both of the incidents was in the Bamboo Forest. That would explain why they had remained so elusive.

While she was thinking, she noticed the mysterious rabbit, who she realized hadn't even spoken a word, standing in a stance of some sort, clearly ready for a fight, holding her knife in a reverse grip. "Alright, straight to the point then." Reimu quipped before brandishing her senbon, clearly ready to respond in kind.

Kasen got into a stance of her own after seeing Reimu's actions, exchanging no words. Keine on the other hand, sighed before saying, "Usagi, please at least be careful." '_Usagi's her name. Well at least I got that._'

And with that, the 4 went to their respective opponents. Kasen with Keine. And Reimu with Usagi.

* * *

Kasen led off her fight with a right hook, which Keine quickly ducked under before attempting to land a punch on Kasen's stomach, which she effortlessly caught before, with much more strength than you'd expect from a replica arm made entirely out of bandages, launching her towards the bamboo. Keine proceeded to land feet first on one of the stalks, before launching herself off of it and towards Kasen, snapping said stalk in half, before attempting to land another punch, which her opponent gracefully jumped out of the way of.

Kasen continued dancing around Keine's attacks for a bit before eventually getting bored and launching a danmaku bullet point blank in Keine's face as she was preparing another attack, catching her off guard and knocking her out of commission. Kasen then went to join Reimu, forcing Keine to watch the rest of the fight.

* * *

Usagi on the other hand, made the first move against Reimu. With a speed her opponent had not expected coming from her, Usagi bolted to the front of Reimu, positioning her knife for an upwards slash before executing it in the blink of an eye. Reimu only dodged at the last second, and even then Usagi halted her movement instantly before going to transfer her momentum into a punch, which ended up landing. This ended up knocking her into a bamboo stalk. It also hurt a lot more than she was expecting.

Reimu realized right there that this would be less the typical moon rabbit fight she was expecting, and more like a fight with a tengu. Usagi's speed was the biggest problem, she needed her reactions to be practically instant in order to keep up with it, which could lead to some costly mistakes that Reimu now knew would end up hurting. This would also make Usagi incredibly hard to hit combined with her smaller size, and while she didn't know exactly how fast her reflexes were, based on the impression she was getting, she assumed they were quite fast compared to your average Gensokyan.

It was then she noticed the spear heading towards her.

Acting on instinct, she lept into the air before bouncing off the bamboo stalk she was laying on. Good thing too, because said stalk was almost immediately cut at a diagonal angle afterwards. Reimu pulled out the yin-yang orb before launching it at a charging Usagi, hoping to catch her off gaurd. The girl feinted to the side, dodging the orb, but allowing Reimu to place a mine of sorts down that would hopefully trap Usagi before jumping back from a knife slash. She hadn't expected Usagi to launch herself during that however, and the added momentum it gave allowed Usagi to follow up. Reimu hastily put up a barrier in response which thankfully blocked the punch, however she couldn't fully escape the impact and was knocked backwards slightly, skidding across the ground.

Usagi summoned a spear before pushing off of it at an angle. An angle which also hit the mine she planted, Reimu dully noted. Looks like beating this opponent isn't going to be so simple.

She launched herself off of the bamboo stalk, before summoning another spear, fully intent on impaling Reimu. Reimu moved back as quickly as possible to avoid the attack, which she did successfully before Usagi launched off her spear towards her direction.

It was at this moment her ears twitched, which caused her to halt her approach and jump to the side, causing Kasen's punch to miss but finally giving Reimu some breathing room.

"This rabbit giving you trouble?" Kasen asked with a smirk. Reimu sighed heavily before replying, "Unfortunately yes. Usagi's a lot harder of a foe to deal with than I expected."

Reimu looked at said rabbit, who still seemed somewhat confident. Then she noticed her eyes, which were no longer the sickly red she had gotten used to.

Now they were a brilliant emerald green.

Usagi proceeded to hold her knife above her right wrist before cutting downwards, creating a gash that bled out profusely, all without even flinching and no indication she felt any pain, much to the disturbance of Reimu and Kasen. Reimu's disturbance turned into clear horror when she noticed the blood going into Usagi's knife.

Things finally began to click into place for Reimu, and as much as she didn't want to admit it, she couldn't deny the evidence staring her in the face.

Usagi has a clear connection to Xhi, someone who they had assumed was dead.

Reimu had no time to think of the implications however, as she noticed Usagi holding her knife directly in front of them, glowing a scarlet red. Even with her attacks obliging by the spell card rules, Reimu knew from experience that this attack would hurt far more than the punch that landed when the fight began. But Kasen didn't.

Reimu's brain quickly went into overdrive, trying to figure out all the possibilities, before coming up with a plan.

The only step required was warning Kasen.

"Get out of the way!" She practically screamed before jumping backwards. Her yell certainly attracted Kasen's attention, who proceeded to follow suit just as the attack was fired off. Multiple knife-shaped bullets were fired, the first of which grazed Kasen's left leg, while the rest thankfully missed.

Kasen, once she landed, almost immediately grabbed her leg in pain. "Gahh! That hurt a lot more than I was expecting." Reimu turned around before replying, "Which is exactly why I warned you. Come on, let's take advantage of the smoke cloud the attack generated and retreat for now" before quickly flying off. Kasen was surprised for a brief moment before following suit.

By the time the smoke cleared Reimu and Kasen were long gone. Keine looked on in complete and utter shock after witnessing Usagi fend them both off with minimal effort, though it was curious to see the Hakurei shrine maiden cut her losses so quickly.

Usagi turned to face Keine before holding up a written note. The letters were faint, but she could make out the words, "_If you're looking to find Mokou's whereabouts, I suggest you get going._" She soon put the note away before walking off.

* * *

By night time, aside from finding out the mastermind's identity(via Yukari of course), Reimu and Kasen accomplished a whole lot of nothing in relation to the Perfect Possesion incident. However, both of them had other things on her minds, and it was eventually Kasen who broke the silence.

"Why'd you decide to retreat?" It was a question that was bugging Kasen for a good while now, and she finally got a chance to get an answer out of Reimu.

The shrine maiden sighed heavily. "You know I've never appreciated dancing around a question, and you deserve an explanation for that anyways, so I'll be blunt. I think I know who caused those two coinciding incidents." Reimu then told Kasen of the incident that happened almost 2 years ago.

One that would finally give the mastermind of this long-term incident a potential name.

* * *

Yukari had gone back to her residence with questions weighing heavy on her mind.

Like everyone else, she was stumped on what exactly caused Tenshi's weather incident to repeat itself. Unlike everyone else however, she had a pretty good grasp on what caused the rabbits to change behaviors so suddenly, which actually coincided with another chilling fact.

The two main lunarian civilizations had been completely destroyed, with the only survivors likely being Chang'e, Eirin and Kaguya, and who knows where they were. What's worse, the culprit behind all 4 of these happenings had still remained elusive, even to her.

Which is why she kept going back to her confrontation and later talk with Reimu. While Kasen seemed more confused than anything, it was clear to Yukari the shrine maiden was hiding something, which could prove to be crucial in closing these cases.

However, for the time being Yukari knew she wasn't going to get anything out of her. The Perfect Possesion incident was the more immediate threat as well as something she barely had anything on. As such she would likely be more focused on solving it at the current point in time. Maybe later she could try asking, but for now she forced herself to resign from this.

* * *

**Yay, the second arc is finally here. And as you can guess, I have quite a bit to go through.  
**

**First off, the reason behind the earth rabbits state. As the story implies, Xhi is indeed responsible for this(again!), but let me illustrate how in the world she pulled it off. This is a personal headcanon of mine, but I've always envisioned the earth rabbit race as a sort of hive mind, with Tewi as the leader. Granted while I don't see their personalities as the copy-pastes of her own, I do see them having common trends across their personality because of this. The most obvious example being that they're all relatively harmless pranksters because Tewi is a relatively harmless prankster. With Tewi killed back in chapter 8 however, they've become quite literally mindless.  
**

**One more thing before I talk about the new characters however, I want to address how I'm writing Perfect Possession. The way it's portrayed in the game is a good way to make a multi-character fighting game, it would get really clunky really fast if I constantly had character switching between positions. Hence why I'm writing it as a double team mechanic. This has forced me to change the names of the two positions(which is probably a good thing). Don't worry however, the Dream World will still be involved in this. I'm not messing with canon that much.**

**Now we get to the actual characters. First off, no Mamizou didn't vanish from this arc too. She will appear, just not in the current moment. Getting into the actual characters, Keine replacing Mokou was probably a surprise, however I can't really think of anyone else close enough who would actually look for the surviving Hourai. The Perfect Possesion incident just gave her a good chance to look.**

**And then there's Usagi. There's a lot to go over hear. First off, you can't say I lied, I have brought up at the beginning of every chapter that I own only my original creations. The plural was very much intentional. Secondly, remember when I said that Xhi had killed almost everyone in the Lunar Capital. That's because Usagi is the sole survivor of that attack. As for where I'm putting her in the story, I'm keeping her exclusive to the Bamboo Forest encounters, however I am spreading her across all of them. I feel this makes her role somewhat known without giving her an overarching presence in the overall story of AoCF. This is why Mamizou didn't show up this chapter.**

**Also before you ask, no I did not name her after Sailor Moon. The similarity was only something I realized after I came up with the name.**

**Onto the actual fight... which might as well have been Reimu and Kasen vs Usagi because Keine stood absolutely no chance. There really isn't much to go over other than the ending scene. I have decided to make Usagi mute, which is something I don't think anybody's ever done with a Touhou OC. This is why the one time she actually inputted anything, she held up a note saying... well what she wanted to say.**

**Now the scene at the shrine. To be honest, I wasn't originally gonna write this, and was gonna skip straight to the Yukari scene with Reimu being just as blind as the other 3. However as I was writing this chapter, I realized Reimu figuring it out and telling Kasen would make a whole lot more sense. So know Kasen is aware of Xhi.**

**And now the final scene. While all the chapters in this arc will mainly focus on different characters, I will be putting a segment at the end of each focusing solely on Yukari's actions. Yes, I said it. Yukari is, for once in her life, actively participating in something. Also, poor Yukari has no idea the 3 mentioned are actually dead.**

**That's all I have to say, so I minus well finish this off. Hope to(not literally) see you again soon.**


End file.
